Only a Woman
by TheWeasleyBoys
Summary: Katherine Champernowne, the future Kat Ashley, gets a lesson on life from Lady Bryan while Elizabeth looks on... spoilers up to 2.10


**Author's Note:** Greetings and salutations from a long-time reader/reviewer for this fandom, but a first-time writer...please accept this one shot about Katherine Champernowne, the soon-to-be Kat Ashley and Elizabeth's governess, over that leaving scene in episode 2.10 where she gets a lesson on life from Lady Bryan. Thank you and goodnight. :D

**Only A Woman**

"I won't _wear_ it! You can't _make_ me!"

Today marked another morning at Hatfield House, a morning in which we expected to move to a smaller residence within the week so that the first could be cleaned and freshened up for later use. The other maids and ladies-in-waiting busied themselves with wrapping candlesticks, sweeping the floors, and removing the hangings...all save one, who struggled to put the Princess into her green traveling cloak amidst her loud protests. I myself was carefully wrapping the silver service and placing each piece into a nearby box, so that the horses' movements would not damage them later. In one corner of my mind, I could hear the little one's shrieks, but I paid them very little attention.

"_No_! NO! I'm not _GOING_!"

She was her father's daughter even then, because she fought the servant girl with a temper equal to his own. I felt a small stab at my conscience at this. She had been waiting for her mother, the former Queen Anne, to return and visit her...a visit that might never take place, as she was trapped in the Tower of London for charges of adultery and incest. Many weeks had passed since her last visit, and still the little Princess held out hope that her carriage would one day come, and that things would be as they were. Unfortunately, as I watched Lady Bryan scold her out loud, I suddenly realized she was no longer in the position to do so.

"Lady Elizabeth! You must do as you are told. Now _hush_, or I will hit you!"

The look on Elizabeth's face was as painful as though she'd already been hit. I felt my own face contort into an expression of disgust and surprise as soon as I saw the anguish in her dark eyes. _Lady_ Elizabeth...? How come Lady Bryan was threatening her so harshly? Was this not the same child who had been surrounded by a retinue of servants and ladies-in-waiting only _yesterday_, all of them biddable and bound to her every whim? Had she not been bowed and deferred to, and kept in the royal state as well as her older half-sister had once been...?

"Don't look like that, girl. We are ordered to remove the child so that she may be kept out of sight of the King."

_The King._ An unseen dagger pierced my heart at the thought of this. The King had not thought twice about removing the Lady Anne's predecessor, the Dowager Princess Katherine of Aragon, from his favor. His Majesty also did not have any second thoughts about keeping his elder daughter, the Lady Mary, out of his sight as well. The newly-named Lady Anne had been the third such woman to suffer his displeasure in three years' time. Since when had his disgust reached towards small girls as well...?

"The little Princess..."

"She's no longer a Princess, she's a bastard. Master Cromwell has asked that her accounts be settled..."

The dagger twisted in my heart a second time, and with it, my mind started to wander. In one breath, everything began to make sense to me. My Princess—no, my 'Lady'—had shown me what was happening before, although I did not recognize it until now. I had heard her question Lady Bryan's husband over the change in her title a mere two days ago. Would she have said the same to her father if he had dared to behave this rashly in person...?

All I had to do was look into those eyes, those eyes so much like her mother's to learn the answer. If Lady Bryan's admonishment was enough for her to look as though she'd been slapped, I could only imagine her reaction to His Grace's newfound hatred of her.

"...Also in respect for the necessities provided for her mother in the Tower."

I was brought out of my reverie with that one sentence, that small collection of words that became a deeper sentence of abandonment for the little girl hovering close by.

"You mean the child should pay for her mother's imprisonment?"

"Yes. Out of the money the King pays for her household."

The dagger twisted thrice inside me, and with it, Lady Bryan's expression was grave.

"_Exactly_. The world is a slippery place, my lady. If you will take my advice, for what it's worth, find a rich man to marry you who's too _stupid_ to know anything about politics..."

My Princess—no, my 'Lady'—continued to watch us without blinking. That flash of pain might have left her eyes at last, but the sadness remained. She was so silent, so sorrowful, that she made me wonder if her mother had gone to the Tower the same way. Already she was suffering the same fate as the Lady Mary, who in spite of the denial of her mother's marriage by the King, still claimed to be his legitimate heir presumptive and the true Princess of England. How long would it be before someone sent poor little Elizabeth to the Tower as well...?

"...Then, perhaps, if you die in childbirth, which is likely...or the plague, which is almost inevitable...then you will be happy."

On the outside, I bowed my head in answer to Lady Bryan, ever the model of quiet obedience. On the inside, I wanted to scream...beg...even _demand_ why Elizabeth had to go on paying for her mother's 'crimes' when she herself was already paying with her freedom. The King had already seen to that, and now he had a third prospective wife to hold his interests and breathe life into his Court. How was it, then, that he had to go on punishing the former Queen Anne by sending their daughter away? What crime had Elizabeth committed with her own birth? If I had seen the King riding towards Hatfield House tomorrow, would I have had the audacity to ask him directly, or merely bowed my head in silence as I had done so many times before?

I already knew the answers to all of these, and each one hurt worse than the last. No woman or girl would ever question the King's authority, especially not such a one as myself. My lot in life was clear—as a servant girl, I could not show any of my own opinions, or even suggest that I had them. I would have to do as Lady Bryan asked of me, as she too would have to follow the King's requests and commands to the letter. I would have to follow my little Lady Elizabeth into exile, watch the end of her accounts from the Crown, and see any money that remained go to the hands of her mother's jailers.

As for the King himself, he would continue on as he wished, and go on remarrying as many times as he saw fit once he had declared his marriage to Anne null and void...or worse, sentenced her to death. There would be no miraculous appearance of knights or saviors to rescue the Lady Anne from her prison, because they were all under His Majesty's command, and to do so would be an act of treason. She would have to go to her fate as quietly as her little daughter, and His Majesty would think nothing further of either one of them. Perhaps even his new prospect, that Lady Jane Seymour, would give him that son and heir he craved so desperately.

No one, not even myself, would dare refuse him this, especially after his claims of witchcraft on Lady Anne's part. At the end of the day, he would still be the King of England and a man, and I would be only a woman.


End file.
